One Second to the Next

By Holly Day

I start to tell him the thing that’s been weighing on me all day
but he interrupts me and the moment’s passed. I try to talk
but there is no room in this marriage
for serious conversation, for the dark shadows of doubt
that chase me through the day. I have stockpiled these conversations

for the day that our daughter is finally grown up, that all these fears
can finally be spoken, that there will be no retribution
for discussions about money, or cancer, or regret
we will be able to address each plight, one at a time
like accountants going over a stack of receipts
and not a man and a woman
barely holding on to one another.

 

 

Holly Day’s poetry has recently appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Grain, and The Tampa Review. Her newest poetry collections are In This Place, She Is Her Own (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press), A Wall to Protect Your Eyes (Pski’s Porch Publishing), Folios of Dried Flowers and Pressed Birds (Cyberwit.net), Where We Went Wrong (Clare Songbirds Publishing), Into the Cracks (Golden Antelope Press), and Cross Referencing a Book of Summer (Silver Bow Publishing), while her newest nonfiction books are Music Theory for Dummies and Tattoo FAQ